Mercier and Camier is a novel by Samuel Beckett written in 1946, but that remained unpublished until 1970. Appearing immediately before his celebrated "trilogy" of Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, Mercier et Camier was Beckett's first attempt at extended prose fiction in French. Beckett refused to publish it until 1970 in its original French, and while an English translation by Beckett himself was published in 1974, the author had made substantial alterations to and deletions from the original text while "reshaping" it from French to English.
The novel features the "pseudocouple" Mercier and his friend, the private investigator Camier, in their repeated attempts to leave a city only to abandon their journey and return. Frequent visits are paid to "Helen's Place," a bawdy house modeled on that of legendary Dublin madam Becky Cooper. A much-changed Watt makes a cameo appearance, bringing his stick down on a pub table and yelling "Fuck life!"
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Mercier and Camier is a novel by Samuel Beckett written in 1946, but that remained unpublished...
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Mercier and Camier is a novel by Samuel Beckett written in 1946, but that remained unpublished until 1970. Appearing immediately before his celebrated "trilogy" of Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, Mercier et Camier was Beckett's first attempt at extended prose fiction in French. Beckett refused to publish it until 1970 in its original French, and while an English translation by Beckett himself was published in 1974, the author had made substantial alterations to and deletions from the original text while "reshaping" it from French to English.
The novel features the "pseudocouple" Mercier and his friend, the private investigator Camier, in their repeated attempts to leave a city only to abandon their journey and return. Frequent visits are paid to "Helen's Place," a bawdy house modeled on that of legendary Dublin madam Becky Cooper. A much-changed Watt makes a cameo appearance, bringing his stick down on a pub table and yelling "Fuck life!"